Canal Break Floods Streets in Badger Canyon

KENNEWICK, Wash-- Homeowners are cleaning up after an irrigation canal breaks, flooding the streets of a Badger Canyon neighborhood on Friday. This isn't the first time this irrigation canal has flooded streets in the Cottonwood Springs Neighborhood.

KID officials say gophers and moles are digging holes, and somehow breaking the levee. The owner of the land where the canal is used a back hoe to push dirt into it.

A neighbor remembers the canal flooding last year and says it was far worst because water got under some home foundations.

Residents want KID to do something to prevent small animals from having easy access to the canal.

"Well the true feeling is they need to make the canal wall out of something besides dirt, if the critters are going to be the one's that continue to dig holes through there and cause the walls to break out," said Bill Harbeck, who lives near the canal.

KID Operations Manager, Harry Fox, says KID would need extra funding to line the canal with plastic or cement instead of just dirt.

Compared to last years flooding, damages to landscaping and driveways were only minor. The canal is near a hay field, so it's hard to catch burrowing animals in time before they start affecting the flow of water inside the canal.